If I had to rank the all-time goaltender list, I’d start with Terry Sawchuk, but Price is working his way up that list with a full head of steam. He is locked in to an almost unimaginable degree. He is doing things no one every thought of asking a goaltender to do: making stickhandling plays on the ice, leading in the room.

Most of all, Price has a degree of separation from his peers that I don’t believe any goaltender can rival. That is probably the ultimate test. Price simply has no peer. Goalies rise and fall, one plays well for a time than another. But you can go back to before the 2014 Olympics and Price has been, as José Théodore said last week, in a class by himself.

There’s only one missing link in the resumé. You know what it is. Price knows what it is: A Stanley cup ring.

-Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette where you can read more on Carey Price.

MONTREAL – Canadiens’ general manager Marc Bergevin announced Tuesday that goaltender Carey Price will not return to action this season. The decision was made last night by the Canadiens’ medical staff, head team physician Vincent Lacroix, head orthopedic surgeon Paul Martineau, with Marc Bergevin and Carey Price.

“Now that Carey Price’s season has officially ended, here is a detailed description of his injury: Carey sustained a medial collateral ligament injury (MCL sprain) to his right knee on November 25th, 2015 in a game against the NY Rangers. The MCL provides support to the inside of the knee and is essential for stability and knee function. Acute, isolated MCL injuries are managed without surgery. Rehabilitation treatments lead to full functional recovery. The recovery process can be long in the case of an elite netminder such as Carey, due to the high demand placed on this anatomical structure by modern goaltending techniques. Although Carey has made excellent progress and is very close to being able to return to competition, he has not presently been cleared to do so. He is expected to make a full recovery over the off-season. This injury was not the same as the one he suffered earlier this season (October 29th at Edmonton), nor in previous years,” said the Canadiens’ head physician, Dr. Vincent Lacroix.

The Canadiens also announced that the following players will also be out for the remainder of the season due to injuries: P.K. Subban (neck), Mark Barberio (concussion), Victor Bartley (groin/broken foot) and Lucas Lessio (right knee).

"I still maintain this, and I'm not saying this to please anybody: If Carey Price is there Montreal is not out of it now. That's how good Price is. You can't lose your top player. He's also a tremendous leader, a silent leader. He doesn't have to yell. It's the way he works, like Steve Yzerman when he was my captain in Detroit."

-Jacques Demers on Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens. Dave Stubbs of NHL.com has more from Demers.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Carey Price rates his health somewhere between 3 and 7.

Recently practising in full gear for the first time in months, the NHL’s reigning MVP is still optimistic to return to the Montreal Canadiens this season, but there is no timeline for his return to action as he recovers from a lower-body injury.

“As soon as possible,” Price told reporters in Brossard, Que., Thursday, after facing pucks. “I haven’t seen a shot for three months. To go out on the ice and do some real work, it’s been real nice.

“I’m starting to push my limits a bit more,” added Price, who believes he turned the corner in his recovery over the last couple of weeks. “I’m continuing the process. It’s been a really long one, obviously.”

The footage was shocking to see for the Hockey Central panel. Watching Carey Price skating around so gingerly has set off alarm bells for many and has some wondering if the Canadiens may end up having to shut him down for the season.

Amid the worst run of any Montreal Canadiens team in 76 years, general manager Marc Bergevin said head coach Michel Therrien will not be fired.

Bergevin expressed confidence in Therrien at a press conference Thursday, saying Therrien’s job is safe for the remainder of the season.

“It’s been a hard time for all of us, but I believe in Michel Therrien and his coaching staff,” Bergevin told reporters. “Nobody is going anywhere. Michel knows he has to make the players better and he works at it every day. That’s what I love about Michel Therrien.”

Thursday’s statement isn’t exactly a surprise, considering Bergevin signed Therrien to a four-year contract extension less than two years ago, locking him up through the 2018-19 season. Bergevin doubled down on Therrien with that extension, so firing him now would put a stain on Bergevin’s record.

The Canadiens have been in absolute free-fall since Hart Trophy-winning goaltender Carey Price went down with injury on Nov. 25. Montreal held a seven-point lead in the Atlantic Division on the morning on his injury.

Coach Michel Therrien said the 2015 NHL MVP and Vezina Trophy winner was sidelined by the same lower-body injury that kept him out for eight games earlier this month. This was his third game back.

"The medical staff was really comfortable and Carey was really comfortable to come back," Therrien said. "If we had any doubt, for sure, we would not take that risk. That's all we can say about it. He tweaked it again tonight. That's why we don't want to take any chance. It's still early in the season, so it's important for us when he plays, he's got to make sure he is healthy."

The fact that Carey Price left town to have his lower-body injury evaluated on Monday certainly didn’t raise any alarms among his teammates.

Confident that their All-World netminder is simply taking the necessary steps to ensure he’ll be back between the pipes in short order, Michel Therrien’s troops weren’t about to press the proverbial panic button after learning that No. 31 was seeking further medical advice elsewhere.

“I’ve seen Pricey. I know he’s a tough guy. All we know right now is that he’s just being evaluated. That’s it. That doesn’t say much about the situation. I think we’ve all been evaluated. I mean, I’ve been evaluated more than my fair share of times. It doesn’t really mean that he’s going to miss more time or whatever. We just don’t know,” offered P.K.Subban, who has been Price’s teammate in Montreal since making his NHL debut back in 2009-10. “For him, we just hope that he gets the things done that he needs to and he’s back soon. That’s it.”

For his part, Brendan Gallagher said the decision to send Price abroad for medical attention didn’t necessarily come as a surprise.

[Is] it possible Price has in store a season that could actually top his 2014-15 campaign, which saw him named the league's best goalie and MVP?

I mean, why not? He's 28 years old, still plenty of room to grow. Can you imagine for a moment if the best is still yet to come?

"He's one of those rare guys that you really say has the whole package,'' former Coyotes assistant GM and goalie whisperer Sean Burke said over the phone Thursday night.

"He's athletic to begin with, technically he's very, very sound, he's one of those players that has very few weaknesses, if any,'' continued Burke. "I'm sure every team says 'Let's get traffic and don't let him see the shot.' If he can see it, he's going to stop it. Mentally, that's such an advantage when you know the other team is going into the game saying, 'How are we going to beat this guy?' It reminds me of Dominik Hasek in his prime, the other team is half-beaten before they hit the ice.''

The Montreal Canadiens are 5-and-0 after defeating the New York Rangers 3-0 on Thursday evening, and Carey Price made a sensational glove save on Rick Nash to keep it 1-0 toward the end of the 2nd period:

Carey Price clearly was nervous when he delivered his first acceptance speech at the 2015 NHL Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on Wednesday.

"I was really uncomfortable," the Montreal Canadiens goalie said.

Fortunately it got easier for him as the night went along. He had a lot of practice because he had a historic night as a four-time winner.

Price took home the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player, the Vezina Trophy as the League's best goalie and the Ted Lindsay Award for the most outstanding player as voted by the players. Price also received a share of the William M. Jennings Trophy with Corey Crawford of the Chicago Blackhawks as the goalies on the teams that allowed the fewest goals in the regular season (189).

Price, 27, is the first goalie in NHL history to sweep those four awards. He also is the first goalie to win the Hart Trophy since former Montreal goalie Jose Theodore did it in 2001-02 and the first to win the Ted Lindsay Award since Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres in 1997-98.

LAS VEGAS (June 24, 2015) -- Left wing Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, who earned his seventh career berth on the First All-Star Team, heads the list of players voted to the 2014-15 National Hockey League postseason All-Star Teams. Also a three-time honoree on the Second Team, Ovechkin’s 10 career postseason All-Star Team selections are the most among active players.

Six of Ovechkin’s seven career First Team berths have come at left wing (he was voted to the First Team at right wing in 2012-13). The only left wings in NHL history with more First Team selections are Bobby Hull (10) and Ted Lindsay (eight).

Joining Ovechkin on the First Team are three first-time selections: goaltender Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens, center John Tavares of the New York Islanders and right wing Jakub Voracek of the Philadelphia Flyers. The squad also features a pair of defensemen who have been selected to the First Team for the second time, Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators and P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens.

Among those named to the Second Team is Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby, voted to his fifth career postseason All-Star berth (3 First Team, 2 Second Team). Defensemen Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings and Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators both have landed a spot on the Second Team for the second time, while Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn, Minnesota Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk and St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko are making their first career appearance on the Second Team.

Voting for the All-Star Team is conducted among representatives of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association at the end of the regular season.

There is seldom a way to recover from a 3-0 deficit in a Stanley Cup playoff series, and the Canadiens don't even have time to regroup. With Game 4 coming 24 hours after the most stunning loss imaginable, the Canadiens will feel as though they never left the ice.

So this is no ordinary deep hole that requires a ladder made of four straight wins. This makes down and out feel like the same thing. And the very worst of it is that the Habs can't even tell themselves things should be different. Surely they could see it coming.

Too often they've relied on Carey Price to win a game with saves that should have been won more easily with goals. With an overtime goal against Ben Bishop, this would have been another typical Montreal win - except that Price couldn't make the last save. And suddenly - 1.1 seconds later - the game was over. There was no more time and no time for overtime.

The Canadiens have been described as a mediocre team with a great goalie. Harsh as that might sound, any argument is hollow. Thumbs up and down accordingly.

NEW YORK (April 12, 2015) – The 2014-15 National Hockey League regular season concluded on Saturday with Dallas Stars forward Jamie Benn capturing his first career Art Ross Trophy as the League’s scoring champion, Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin claiming his fifth career Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the NHL’s goal-scoring leader and Corey Crawford of the Chicago Blackhawks and Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens winning the William M. Jennings Trophy as the goaltender(s) who play at least 25 games for the club allowing the fewest goals. Two races – for the Art Ross Trophy and William M. Jennings Trophy – came down to the final moments of the regular season.

On Wednesday afternoon in Winnipeg, Price was soft-spoken, humble and a gentleman. He had chosen to take a day off from speaking with the Montreal media contingent but when word reached him that a Winnipeg reporter was hoping for a few minutes, he emerged from the trainers' room to talk.

Price turned every question about his individual greatness into an answer about his team. It would have been infuriating but for the manner in which he did it. An easy but small smile, patience with questions he'd likely heard a thousand times and when I clumsily dropped my recorder, he bent down to pick it up. He offered his hand when I'd exhausted my efforts to get a juicy quote and then shuffled off the team bus.

"It's just a cold hard fact that I wouldn't be where I'm at without these guys in the locker-room. It's just the reality," said Price. "This is the best our team has been. We've been playing pretty solid hockey all season long. Whenever you get to the 100-point mark, before the end of the season, it's definitely a feather in the hat."

During the Olympics, Team Canada coach Mike Babcock took to referring to Price as big, square and soft. Price smiled when reminded of the reference.

"If he's talking about me as a goalie, that's a compliment. If he's talking about my physique, then probably not," said the 27-year-old from Anahim Lake, B.C. "That's what you strive to do, is make yourself as big of a target as possible and try to give as few secondary chances as possible."

It’s been since 1976-77 that a Canadiens goalie has recorded 10 shutouts in a season. With nine games remaining on the Habs schedule, Price’s 2-0 whitewash Saturday of San Jose gives him a lifetime-best nine.

And his 40 victories, also a career high, have him two behind a share of his team’s record in that category: Jacques Plante won 42 in 1955-56 and 1961-62, Dryden won the same number in 1975-76.

With his shutout of the Sharks, Price equalled the 34 lifetime unblemished games of Canadiens Hall of Famer Bill Durnan for fourth place on the team’s all-time list. Next up: Dryden’s 46, Plante’s 58, and the distant 75 of early-era George Hainsworth.

You’ve been hearing for some time that this season is a career year for Price. It is no longer “just” that, of course. This one is sprinkled with stardust, one for the ages, something magical that’s been fascinating to watch.

Mark Giordano’s season-ending injury has complicated voting for the Norris Trophy. Somehow, between Shea Weber, Drew Doughty, the alleged embellisher P.K. Subban, Ryan McDonagh, the re-emerging Erik Karlsson and Duncan Keith, it’s a tough ballot to figure out. Said a pro scout: “If I’m voting the first half of the season, I’m voting Giordano. If I’m voting the second half, I’m taking Karlsson. He’s back skating like he was before injury. But if I’m voting for the whole season, Weber is the pick. He does everything well."

The Minnesota Wild are 14 games over .500 with Devan Dubnyk in goal and nine games under .500 in games he hasn’t played. The Coyotes were two games over .500 in games Dubnyk played in Arizona and are now 31 games under .500 without him. Can you say Hart Trophy candidate — just after Carey Price?

Mike Santorelli has been a disaster in Nashville thus far: He has one assist in 14 games with the Predators. No doubt he’s regretting walking away from that multi-year offer in Toronto.

If you break down the Cody Franson-Mike Santorelli trade, it’s basically Franson for a late first-round pick and Santorelli for the prospect Brendan Leipsic. The Leafs had a very extensive book on Leipsic, partly because personnel man Mark Hunter had his London Knights play against him in the Memorial Cup. Leipsic is known for three things: 1) being small; 2) being ultra-competitive; 3) having ridiculous ‘he could stickhandle in a phone booth’ hands...

The Leafs also have some interest in Alexander Burmistrov, the troubled high draft pick playing in the KHL, whose rights are owned by Winnipeg...

I'm intrigued by Burmistrov myself--he's 23 and liberally-listed at 6' and 179 pounds, and he hasn't exactly lit it up during two seasons with the Ak Bars Kazan, but he's still fleet-footed as all hell get out, and he could be somebody's next-year reclamation project.

The gymnasium of the Anahim Lake School was packed last week as community members turned out to honour one of their own: superstar NHL goalie Carey Price.

In town to promote his new role as First Nations Ambassador for the Breakfast Club of Canada, Price was excitedly received by his biggest fans: the Ulkatcho community.

Price’s remarkable story is well known by now. Of both Ulkatcho and Nuxalk descent, Price was raised on the ice of Anahim Lake, which was little more than backyard creeks and outdoor rinks, with his goalie father always by his side.

“It was just me and my dad a lot of the time,” Price said. “We would spend hours out on the creeks, in the cold.”

At age nine his dad decided he should join a team, so they made the nearly 700-kilometre round trip to Williams Lake a few times a week. It got so taxing that Price’s father Jerry, who had his pilot’s license, bought a small plane and the commute was cut to a more reasonable 45 minutes.

While the Montreal Canadiens were worried about their goaltending, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final, the goaltender opposite Dustin Tokarski stole the show, as the AP's recap of the New York Rangers' 3-1 win reports:

Henrik Lundqvist made 40 saves and Martin St. Louis scored in the second period as the New York Rangers earned a 3-1 victory over the Carey Price-less Montreal Canadiens on Monday.

The Rangers lead the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final 2-0 heading back to New York for Game 3 on Thursday and Game 4 on Sunday.

St. Louis scored a day after he and his teammates attended the funeral of his mother, who died just before Mother's Day. The Rangers have rallied around the grieving veteran and have won five in a row.

New York's Rick Nash also scored while Ryan McDonagh added a goal and an assist to give the defenseman six points in the opening two games of the series.

Goaltender Carey Price tested a suspected knee injury briefly ahead of an optional practice on Sunday, but his fitness for Game 2 of the NHL Eastern Conference final remains in doubt.

Price went on the ice with goaltending coach Stephane Waite for about five minutes, mostly moving side to side in the crease. Then they left the ice.

There was no immediate word on his condition from the team.

Price was hurt at 3:15 of the second period of a 7-2 loss to New York in the series opener on Saturday when Rangers forward Chris Kreider crashed into him skates-first after missing the net on a breakaway.

Price lay on the ice for a while and appeared to injure his right knee, but got up and stayed in the game.

After giving up two goals late in the period, he was replaced by backup Peter Budaj for the third frame.

If you missed the incident in the game yesterday, you can watch it here...

The Boston Bruins decided to make a personnel change on Thursday, swapping out Justin Florek for Matt Fraser, and boy howdy, did their pick pay off as the Bruins shut down the Canadiens' offensive machine and won 1-0 in overtime--thanks to Fraser, as the CP's recap notes:

Rookie Matt Fraser got to live a dream he had many times while growing up in Red Deer, Alta. Fraser, called up Wednesday from AHL Providence and playing his first career NHL playoff game, scored 1:19 into overtime to give the Boston Bruins a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens to even their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Thursday night.

The 23-year-old jumped into a scramble in front of goalie Carey Price's net and slid the puck under him into the net.

"It was bouncing around and I was just swatting at it as hard as I could and hoping it would hit something," said Fraser. "Price is such a good goalie. He doesn't give out a lot of rebounds. I might have got lucky there, but the puck wound up in the back of the net. It's something I dreamed about many times on the outdoor rinks growing up. It's every kid's dream to score in overtime."

The CP's recap continues, and as you can easily see, the Bruins capitalized on a terrible case of standing-around-itis by the Habs' defense:

The last few dinosaurs of the stand-up goaltending technique--30-something-and-up goalies like myself--fondly remember goaltenders like Bob Essensa as pioneeers, and as cautionary reminders that relying on the same technique all the time was nothing less than dangerous.

In an era when goaltenders stayed on their feet until shots came their way, Essensa offered a unique alternative to trying to look OVER your opponents when screened. Instead of poking his head over traffic, he'd crouch down to the point that his entire torso and head were parallel to his thighs, looking through players' elbows and even around their butts to find the puck.

On Jan. 7, Carey Price was named to the Canadian Olympic team. At the time of the announcement, he was 20-11-4 with a .927 save percentage and the odds on favourite to be the starter in Sochi. I had recently endorsed him for the starting job based on his impressive work since the beginning of the 2011-12 season. But since Jan. 7, Price has been a statistical disaster registering an .886 save percentage while winning only three of eight starts.

At times over that span he has appeared spectacular, but the eye test has always been unreliable. Could the blame possibly lie elsewhere? Like, say, with the coaching system?

A goaltender’s performance relies on the amount of shots they face with the ability to set. When forced into transition or dealing with a change in puck-direction, save percentage drops.

No matter what Darren Dreger tries to tell you, (Carey) Price has to be the starter in Sochi. He has made the leap from good to great in a single season and he is the only goaltender I would trust with Canada’s Olympic fate.

Pucks were ringing off the boards Wednesday morning at Toyota Arena. They don’t have the same musical tone as wedding bells, but by week’s end, Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price will have heard them both.

It’s a busy week for Price, who will marry Kennewick native Angela Webber on Saturday, then leave Sunday for the Canada’s National Men’s Team orientation camp in Calgary. The camp will be used to evaluate players for the upcoming Sochi Olympic games.

“It hasn’t been too bad,” Price said. “Fortunately for me, Angela has been doing a lot of the work. She’s had a lot of help with the wedding so it hasn’t been too bad on me. I can focus on training.

“It’s a really busy week. Fortunately for me, I have a really good future family-in-laws.”

Price, who turned 26 last week, was sharing time in goal with Tri-City Americans goalie Troy Trombley on Wednesday, stopping everything that came his way.

Anderson has a .949 save percentage through three games, placing him third among the 16 active goaltenders playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. His goals-against average sits at 2.01, which ranks sixth. Meanwhile, Price finds himself 15th in both categories, with a 3.69 GAA and .879 save percentage.

Price's stats took a hit after the 6-1 loss to the Senators on Sunday -- a game in which he stayed in until the finish.

"I think it's important to hang in there with my teammates and not bail out. I think the best thing to do is fight through it," Price said.

His coach, Michel Therrien, agreed.

"I never thought about taking [Price] out," Therrien said. "The way we played, the loss, it wasn't his fault. But sometimes you've got to feel that pain together, as a team."

For his part, Price shoulders some of the burden of being down in the series.

The “2336” readout on the watch following Monday’s game wasn’t the time of night, but rather his estimated calorie expenditure of the previous 5½ hours.

“I wear it in practice and I’ve been curious. I never knew what (calories) I burned during a game,” Price said. “It will give me a good idea what I should be eating and how many calories I should be consuming.”

Plenty, as it turns out. And guilt-free, no doubt.

Strapping the monitor on his chest when he arrives at the arena, Price figures by the data recorded that he burns about 300 calories over two hours, then another 2,000 during the warmup and game.

The receiver has proven to be shockproof thus far, no matter that he often crushes it during goalmouth pileups.

At 22, the young man was in the eyes of many — perhaps even some in his own organization — no longer the present of Canadiens goaltending, much less its future.

Pierre Groulx had a front-row seat to the drama, completing his first year as the team’s goaltending coach. Groulx had been building a relationship with Price, as he had with Halak, throughout the season. And he knew, as Martin anointed Halak the Habs netminder for the playoffs, that Price was at a delicate, even critical crossroads.

“I don’t want to say that things were easy for Carey, but he learned then that being a goalie in the NHL is not easy,” Groulx says today. “You have to put the work and your heart into it. It doesn’t matter how much skill you have, the work still has to be put in.

“Carey realized in those playoffs that he got knocked down. It hit him hard at first and then he realized, ‘I can do one of two things: I can sulk or I can be the best teammate I can and work toward helping this team win. If it’s by sitting at the end of the bench, then that’s what my job is.’

“For him to realize that made his maturation process jump,” Groulx said. “His understanding of the game began right then and there. I saw a kid who was No. 1, and then he didn’t play. He had to take a step back and at first it was really tough for him. But after that, he understood his role. In the playoffs, I saw a guy who was starting to change, understanding that he wasn’t playing but was still a big part of the team.”

Perhaps by now you’ve seen the viral video of Carey Price, the Montreal Canadiens goaltender.

In the footage Price is seen ungracefully absorbing a puck to the family jewels. The damage is done by an innocuous-looking wrist shot from teammate Lars Eller in warmups for Wednesday’s game against the Boston Bruins. Price, after he takes the hit, sprawls on his stomach in apparent agony. After slowly gathering himself, he leaves the ice in a door-slamming huff....

For those of us who have not been there, Price’s dance to the edge of reproductive viability was worth more than a few hardy-hars. It also begged a serious question: When will goalie jock straps be big enough to end such misery?

Goalie jocks, if you don’t get a regular look at them, are massive. If the protective cups worn by players are the equipment equivalent of a Tim Hortons medium, the models donned by the men who patrol the crease are a 7-Eleven Super Big Gulp. In the dressing room, both player and goalie jocks are known as “cans,” but you could easily mistake one of the goalie versions for a codpiece that fell off the Michelin Man.

MONTREAL – Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin announced Monday the signing of goaltender Carey Price to a six-year contract (2012-13 to 2017-18). As per club policy, financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Price, 24, completed his fifth season with the Canadiens in the NHL in 2011-12. In 65 games, the 6’03’’, 221 lbs goaltender maintained a record of 26 wins, 28 losses and 11 overtime/shootout losses. He recorded four shutouts with a 2.43 goals against average. Price stopped 1,754 of the 1,914 shots he faced for a .916 save percentage.